Christmas in July challenge

Welcome to another fantastic challenge at Exploring Cricut and More.  This week's challenge is to create a card, layout, or other paper craft with a Christmas theme.  To add to your enjoyment this challenge is a blog hop.  You should be coming from Rae Ann's blog.

For my project I decided to decorate a frame (Michael's).  I started off by wrapping the frame in various washi tape designs from various suppliers.  The tape sticks fairly well, but some of the ends were wanting to pop up so I used ModgePodge to cover the entire frame just to make sure the tape would stay.  I picked a snowflake design from the December 25th cartridge.  I really liked this design because it wasn't just a snowflake, it was a little fancier.  The images were cut at 2.53" and one image was flipped.

Thanks for visiting today and don't forget to join in on the challenge and link your project back at Exploring Cricut and More.  Now you are ready to head over to Michelle N.'s blog.
If you get lost along the way here is the path of the blog hop.
Annette
Sharon
Faith
Donna
Rae Ann
Emily
Michelle N.
Christi
Liz
Tina
Katrina
Michelle S.
Diane

july 24th daily project

Welcome to another project for Exploring Cricut and More.  For today's project I'm using a cartridge that when I purchased it it was one of my favorite ones; I just never used it very much.

 I used the flower card cut at 5.47" from the Wild Card cartridge.  This was a very simple card, simple but sweet.  A little bling makes it just right.

This month has become one that has taught me to do things quick.  Everytime I turn around there's another crisis going on.  I've been without my vehicle for over a week (physically).  It hasn't been working correctly for months.  At this time I'm waiting to hear from the service department to see what's wrong with it.
A week ago today, my "baby", Allie decided to become a gymnist.  She jumped off the bed and broke her leg in 2 places.  She had to have surgery to have a metal plate put in for the bones to heal properly.

July 14 Challenge

Welcome to another challenge.  This week's challenge is a crafters' choice.  You must have at least 2 cuts.

For my project I decided to make a birthday card.  You can never have too many birthday cards.

All cuts were made from Paper Doll Dress Up at 3.5" using the mermaid key.  The face was made using a stamp from Peachy Keen stamps.

Thanks for visiting!

July 10

Wow!  This summer is really flying by.  The card I'm sharing today is a very simple card that is mainly stamped, but I saw this flower on a Pinterest card and I thought it would be perfect for this card.

I used:
Ariana pattern paper and cardstock
Outdoor denim and sorbet ink
Banner Wishes stamp set

Cartridge used:
Art Philosophy:  flower @1.", 1.5", and 2.0"
I inked the edges of each flower and used a jewel in the center.

June 30 Challenge

I don't know about you but this summer is flying by.  Before you know it we'll be starting back to school and all the hustle that goes with that.  Today's challenge was to create a card, layout, or other paper craft celebrating summer and using at least 1 sign.  This was a challenge and I didn't decide what to do until basically the last minute.

 I was actually very pleased with how this turned out, especially since I was trying a couple "new" technique.

I started by tearing the tan card stock and inking the edges.  Then using the same color ink that I used to ink the edges I used a stippling brush to dab a little color on the "sand" to give it a little texture.

I then added the sign.  I did the same technique for the sky; I used 2 colors for the sky to give a little added depth.

Once finished with the sky I added the water.  I used the image then welded 2 of the same image together to ensure that the pieces would be long enough.  When I glued the "water" together I alternated the waves going left and right to attempt to give it some movement.

I'm definitely pleased with the results, especially since I was stumped on what to do for this project.  Thanks for visiting!

Cartridges used:

3 Birds on Parade: chick @ 3", inner tube @ 3"

H2O: sign @ 2.29"

Paper Doll Dress Up:  water @ 1.0 (2 cuts welded together)

Accent Essentials:  sun @  2.76"

June 26

Happy summer everyone!  I'm still in graduation mode for today's daily project.  As a special education teacher, I have the chance to really get to know my students because most of them I work with from 7th grade till they graduate.  This year's group of seniors I was able to work with in 1st grade and 3rd grade.  These three students have always held a special place in my heart, even on their worst days.  I will miss them, but I can't wait to see what they do with their futures.

I used the same design, but changed the background paper so there would be a difference between the girls' cards and the fella's card.

My little fella's card (he'll always be my "little" fella even though he is a young adult)

The girls' cards.
For this project I used:
Ariana pattern paper and cardstock
Congrats Graduate stamp set
outdoor denim ink
Cartridges used:
Artbooking:  owl @12.18" and overlay @7.12"
Everyday Paper Dolls:  graduation cap @3.59"

June 16 challenge

This week's challenge is to create a wedding craft using black and white with a little pop of one other color.

I made a wedding card for my cousin and his soon to be bride who are getting married in August.

cardstock from stash
flower from CTMH
wedding dress:  Everyday Pop Up Cards @ 4"

June 12

Welcome to another daily project.  It's that time of year where I'm sure several of you are getting tons of invitations to one graduation or another whether it's preschool, high school, or college.  My project today is for a neighbor's graduation from high school.  I still remember when they moved in he was this scrawny little kid.  One of my favorite memories was shortly after my mom had her open heart surgery and was home after spending a month in the hospital.  Someone had left the garage door open so we had a little visitor of the stinky kind.  We were very fortunate that he hadn't felt threatened enough to release his unpleasant aroma.  My neighbor, trying his hardest to be helpful, was shooting at it with a little pellet gun.  Granted the little bugger never budged, but it was for lack of Jacob's efforts.  Yes, we finally got a friend to bring a live animal trap and caught him over night and were able to release him back into the wild.
Here is the graduation card that I created for this special young man.

For this project I used

Skylark pattern paper

Cardstock Lagoon, kraft, white daisy

bakers twine

Congrats Graduate stamp set

Cartridges:

Art Philosophy:  banners @3.75" and tag @1.75

 George and Basic Shapes:  circle @.50

Happy Father's Day challenge

First let me say Happy Father's Day to all the fathers and fathers to be!  This challenge was, well, a challenge.  One that I feel I failed.  This is an extremely difficult holiday for me because I'm still getting used to my dad not being here.  Yes, it's been almost 2 years, but I don't know that I'll ever be used to it.  I tried to think of my dad and some of his favorite things, and he was definitely the grill master of our household.  Therefore my card is meant to be for a man who is the grill master, although it turned out looking kind of feminine.

products used
skylark pattern paper
garden and gingham pattern paper

Cartridge used:
From my kitchen:  apron @4.12" and oven mitts @2.0"

Prom 201

This year was my first year as a class sponsor and they put me with the junior class.  Talk about jumping in feet first, no going slow for me!  Our biggest event is of course prom, and this year the juniors decided on Red Carpet Romance for their theme with a heavy emphasis on Hollywood and the movies.

To enter the gym we wanted to create a ticket booth complete with marquee.  This was one of the items we were most proud of creating cause it turned out even better than we had envisioned.  For my part I used Plantin Schoolbook, Graphically Speaking, Winter Woodland, and Forever Young.

 Now Showing:  6.0" from Plantin Schoolbook
Red Carpet Romance: 6.0" from Winter Woodland
Prom 2014 and Ticket Booth: 4.0" from Plantin Schoolbook

Star:  9.0" from Graphically Speaking

Silhouette: 12.88" from Forever Young.

We also have to create something with each seniors' name on it as a take away.  This was a little harder since we had two projects that we thought would be cute.  Our original idea was to create a director's clapboard.  I cut these out using Locker Talk at 11.0"

The words were cut using Plantin Schoolbook at .75"
We then lined the gym enterance with these!

My final crafty contribution to the prom was a "walk of fame" using the seniors' names.  This was a super easy part, but it was a huge hit with the kids!

I cut the stars out using Graphically Speaking at 9.0"
We then lined the hallway with these stars, taping them down so they wouldn't be destroyed.

Prom was a huge success, but I'm glad I don't have to do it again for a long time.

Summer Challenge

Welcome to another challenge for Exploring Cricut and More.  My project for the challenge isn't one that screams summer, but more Memorial Day.  I chose to do a double page layout in rememberance of my dad.  It's been almost 2 years since my dad passed away from cancer and the patriotic holidays were always his favorite.

My dad served in the army during peace time, but because of his service he felt a strong dedication to this country and the men and women that served it.  

For this project I used the following cuts
Stone Script for the font
Stand and Salute for the flag
From my kitchen for the grill
'
The flowers are from my stash

Happy Birthday Averi!

For my project today I'm sharing a project that I created for my Assistant Principal's daughter.  It was her 1st birthday recently and her mom asked me to create a banner for her birthday party.  This was a cool project to work on since it's something I normally wouldn't do for myself.

I began with the scallop circle then added the purple and teal circles.

Then this cute little owl.  Brandi picked this one out of all the choices because it was the closest to the owls that she used to decorate the nursery.
The finished project:

Cricut Cuts:
Mini Monogram:  scallop circle @ 6.53"
George and Basic Shapes:  circles @ 6.76" and 5.94"
3 Birds Straight From the Nest:  Owl and all parts @2.29"
New Arrival:  bow@2.29"
Alphalicious:  name@ 2.77" and welded words @2.06"

Materials:
Cardstock:  Colorboc
Ribbon from stash

daily post May 1

April is Autism Awareness month and this was my year to be in charge of it at school.  One of my responsibilities was to help create a bulletin board.  This is what we came up with.

Of course we used puzzle pieces which is the symbol used for Autim and we found an acronym that we liked for Autism which is
Alway
Unique
Totally
Interesting
Sometimes
Mysterious

Cartridges used:

Type Candy: font at 3.0"
Cursive 101: puzzle pieces at 3"
Thanks for visiting!

It's a Spring Thing

Welcome to another challenge at Exploring Cricut and More!  This week's challenge was to create a card, layout, or other paper craft using at least 1 flower.

For my project I used several of the flowers from Mother's Day Bouquet and layered them adding a rhinestone button for the center.  The stamped sentiment has it ready to send to a special friend!

Materials:
background paper:  Mary and Me from Michael's
flower patterned paper:  Dotty for You from CTMH
Rhinestone button: CTMH
Happy Birthday stamp from Stampin' Up

Cartridge:
Mother's Day Bouquet:
                 Flower 1 @ 2.25"
                 Flower 2 @ 2"
                 Flower 3 @ 3"
                 Flower 5 @ 2.5"
                 Flower 25 @ 2"
                 Leaf 7 @ 2" cut 2

Thanks for visiting!

April 17

Welcome to another daily project.  For today's project I'm sharing a card that I created for a little girl from church.  She's such a sweetie and she was celebrating her 7th birthday.  I had seen this design on the internet and thought this would be perfect for her.

I used cardstock (bamboo, cotton candy, hollyhock, outdoor denim, crystal blue, and goldrush) from my stash.  Sparkles from Michael's.

Cartridges:
Bloom:  flowers@1.71"
Straight from the nest: birdcage with bird@2.0"

Thanks for visiting!

Easter Challenge

Welcome to another challenge for Exploring Cricut and More!  This week's challenge was to create a card, layout, or other paper craft with the theme of Easter and uses a frame and an embellishment.

For my project I choose a frame from the Disney Happily Ever After cartridge.  It doesn't scream Easter, but flowers always remind me of Easter.

Materials
Cardstock from stash
bitty pearls and jewel from CTMH

Cartridge:
Happily Ever After @4.06"

Thanks for visiting!

April 3

Welcome to another daily project.  Today I'm sharing a door decoration that I did for what's called Operation Preparation.  In Kentucky we are starting to focus more on what our kids are going to do after high school and are we preparing them to meet their goals.  This year for Operation Preparation Week each teacher took a college/university from the state and decorated their classroom door.  I was given Georgetown College.

 I used the Chalkboard Font for the name of the college.  One of the symbols that the college uses is the shield (my depiction isn't exact but it's as close as I could make it).

Materials used:
Cardstock:  outdoor denim, white daisy, goldrush, and gypsy

Cartridges Used:
Chalkboard Font:  title @2.06"
Artiste:  Shield @10.77" and 7.71" and the tiny starburst @.88"
Designer Calendar: crosses@1.71" and I cut the extra bits off.
Sugar and Spice:  book@2.06"

Thanks for visiting.

Cricut Choice Challenge

Welcome all to another fantastic challenge at Exploring Cricut and More!  This week's challenge is to create a card, layout, or other papercraft using 1 cardstock and 1 patterned paper.  For this challenge I created a card that can be used for many different seasons/events, for mine I used Easter.

This is a really simple card to make because the Cricut does all the work.  Using my Gypsy I took 2 squares from the George and Basic Shapes cartridge, rotated them 90 degrees and then welded them together.  Then I cut 1" squares to fill in the welded squares.  The 2 larger green pieces were embossed with the swiss dots and the 3 smaller squares were embossed using the paisley folder.

Cricut Cuts:
George and Basic Shapes:  small squares 1"; welded squares 4.02"

Materials:
Cardstock:  CTMH; Juniper, Cotton Candy, and White Daisy
Pattern Paper:  CTMH; Lolly Doddle
Ink:  CTMH; Cotton Candy
Flamingo Dots:  CTMH
Embossing Folders:  Swiss Dots, Paisley

Daily Project for March 20

This week I'm sharing the last card from my card class.  I was really pleased with all of these cards because they can be really versatile.  I'm not a big fan of Valentine's Day, probably because I'm single.  Although the Valentine's Days when I've been in a relationship, have sucked just as much.  As I've grown older, and hopefully wiser I've realized how important it is to tell the ones we love just how much.  At work my students were flabergasted that I didn't celebrate Valentine's Day ("You call it Valentine's Day, I call it Friday").  I tried to explain to them that you should never wait for the one day of the year to tell someone you love how you feel.  I'm so glad my parents told me more than one day out of the year!

Cricut Cuts:
Artiste: hearts @1"
Art Philosophy: squares @1.75

Supplies:
cardstock:  Hollyhock, blush, Ivy Lane purple
pattern paper:  Ivy Lane, pink sparkle paper
Big Hugs stamp set

St. Patrick's Day Challenge

Welcome everyone!  With any luck spring is right around the corner.  I absolutely love snow, but even I'm done for the year.  Along with spring St. Patty's day is also right around the corner so today's challenge is to create a card, layout, or other paper craft for St. Patty's day.

I decided to create a very simple card for the occasion.

I used pear cardstock, green gingham ribbon, and green stickles.

Cartridge used is Paper Doll Dress-Up at 1.5

Daily Project for March 6

Welcome all!  With any luck this month will usher in some nicer weather.  I know here in the ville it has been down right nasty this winter.  I'll never complain about not getting much snow again, at least until next winter. Today I'm sharing another card from my last card class.  We used a sentiment set so I went crazy cutting out images on the cricut to spice them up a bit.  This is one of my favorite and the picture really doesn't do it justice.

Cricut Cuts:
Artbooking:  owl @8.18".  There are two layers for this image and the first one was cut with bamboo then the top layer was cut using a brown sparkle paper.  I decided to make the owl look better the eyes needed to be white.  I took the original layer that I cut in bamboo and cut it again in white daisy but hid the eyes so that they wouldn't be cut out.
Artiste: hearts @ 1".

Supplies:
Cardstock:  hollyhock, blush, Ivy Lane purple, bamboo, brown sparkle paper, white daisy
pattern paper:  Ivy Lane
Big Hugs stamp set

Tags, Bags, and Boxes Challenge

Welcome to another challenge for Exploring Cricut.  This week's challenge is to create a tag, bag, or box with any theme and at least 1 ribbon.

For my project this week I'm recreating a project I saw on Facebook.  I thought these were so cute when I saw them that I knew I had to try them.  I ended up making a couple of them to give to a couple friends for Valentine's Day (even though they really don't look like they're for Valentine's Day).

Cricut Cuts:
Easter 2010:  pillow box @5.71.  I also used my Gypsy to hide the bunny cut-out.
George:  circle @1.71 and .76; oval @1.35 and 2.04; heart @ 1.47.

Supplies:
Cardstock:  White Daisy, Lagoon, black
Pattern Paper: Dotty for You
Ribbon: from stash

Daily Project for February 20th

Welcome to another daily project for Exploring Cricut.  My project for today is a simple card that can be used for just about any occasion just by changing the sentiment.

Supplies:
Cardstock and Pattern Paper from Ivy Lane (CTMH)
Big Hugs stamp set (CTMH)
pink baker's twine (We R Memory Keppers)
Cricut Cuts:
April  Showers:  Birdhouses @1.35

Valentine's Challenge

Welcome to the Valentine's day Challenge.  If you are participating in the blog hop you are coming from  Rae Ann's blog.  This week's challenge is to create a card, layout, or other paper craft celebrating Valentine's Day using at least 1 jewel.

For my project I used cardstock and pattern paper from the Ivy Lane collection (CTMH).  I also used stamp set Big Hugs from CTMH.  For my jewel I used 2 tiny black pearls for the nose and eye.

Cricut cuts:
Give a Hoot:  Hedgehog (all pieces) @2.41"
Art Philosophy:  title @ 1"
Artiste: heart at 1"

Thanks for stopping by!  Your next stop in the blog hop is  Annette's blog.  If you've missed any stops along the way here is a list of all the designers.  Click on any of the names to hop right over to their blog.

Sharon

Donna

Faith 

Rae Ann 

Emily

Annette

Michelle N

Jen 

Julie    

Michelle S

Liz

Rosa

Diane 

daily project for February 6

Welcome to my daily project for Exploring Cricut!  Hope everyone is staying warm.  Here in the ville we've had more snow than we've had the last 5 years combined I think.  I'm a self proclaimed snow lover, but even I've had enough.  My project for today is a card I'm using for my next card class, it's after Valentine's Day but who says you need a special occasion to tell someone how you feel.

I used cardstock and Ivy Lane paper from Close to my Heart and the flowers are also from the Ivy Lane collection from CTMH.

Cricut Cuts:
George and Basic Shapes:  Octagon @1.5"
Art Philosophy: title @ 1"

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget a new challenge starts on Monday!

Cricut Choice Challenge

Welcome everyone to another challenge for Exploring Cricut.  This week's challenge is to create a card, layout, or papercraft using the color blue, 2 cricut cuts, and 1 pattern paper.  For my project I created a simple card.

Materials used:
cardstock: Laughing Lola gold and purple, white daisy (CTMH)
Pattern paper:  laughing lola (CTMH)
Ribbon:  Pool Party seamless binding (SU)

Cricut Cuts:
Art Philosophy:  title frame at 1.12" and background frame at 1.25"

January 23 Daily Project

Welcome everyone!  As we near the end of January I wanted to share a project with a summer theme.  This is from one of our TNT activities at church.

For this project I used pattern paper and cardstock from a special CTMH kit.
Cricut cuts:
CTMH Artbooking:  title @ 2.06"
Life Is A Beach:  chair @ 2.29" and flip flops @ 1.82"
Luau:  sun @ 2.29"

Thanks for stopping by and happy scrapping!

Winter Wonderland Challenge

Welcome everyone to another great challenge at Exploring Cricut!  This week's challenge is to create a card, layout, or paper craft using a winter activity.  I created a generic card with ice skating as my activity.

Materials Needed:
cardstock:  goldrush, gypsy, sky, and white daisy (CTMH)
pattern paper:  Sarita (CTMH)
stamp set:  Polar Bear Holiday (CTMH)
ink:  cocoa
stickles:  Crystal

Cricut Cuts:
Snowflakes:  Graphically Speaking (Icon)@ 1.71" and Accent Essentials @1.94"
Frame:  Art Philosophy @ 2.41" and 2.76"

January 9 Daily Project

Welcome everyone! I really hope everyone is having a great new year! I'm not one to make resolutions because I break them within the first few weeks, but this I am making it a goal to do more crafting. I figure that's a goal I should be able to keep, at least I'll have more fun than losing weight!

My project for today is a name plaque that I created for my room at school.

Materials:

cardstock from stash

pattern paper: Claire from CTMH

copic markers

Cricut Cuts:

Create-A-Friend, teacher @ 5.5”

Type Candy @ 2.88”

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!